Today at Kauai Aadheenam

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Innersearch Asian Odyssey 2008 Retrospective

January 22: Nadanachandran and Rathy celebrate their wedding anniversary in Kuala Lumpur and Bodhinatha honours them with a shawl.

January 23: It’s an early start for the group and we depart our hotel at 3am and head to the famed Batu Caves for Thaipusam. Here we gather at the Divine Life Society. Some of today’s photos of Thaipusam are courtesy of Mark Boyer. Thanks Mark for sending your photos in.

Bodhinatha presents Innersearchers with a milk kavadi that has been blessed.

We head to the stairs that will lead us to Muruga’s cave.

Up we go!

And into this gigantic cave.

Our group prepares to offer the milk to Lord Muruga.

After the offering we all gather for a while by the shrine to absorb the wonderful vibration.

The Divine Life Society fed thousands of people on this day.

Most of the Innersearchers headed back to the hotel after our morning event but a few stayed on to witness more of this amazing festival.

Colourful giant kavadis stood high above the crowd.

A beautifully decorated kavadi with a statue of Muruga in the middle.

Many performed severe penance. Despite the piercings there was not a single drop of blood to be seen.

Many groups of musicians led small groups of kavadis with vibrant music.

Bhavani Param and Suselah Periasamy.

Niraj Thaker from London.

This man is sitting on a chair of nails.

Many also took the opportunity to shave their heads during this festival.

Absorbed in Muruga.

The stairways leading up to the cave is packed. The center stairwell is reserved only for kavadi carriers.

Aravindraj, one of our main coordinators in KL, explores some interesting seeds with Arumugaswami and Sadhaka Dandapani.

Our wonderful media team that photographed the Innersearchers experience of Thaipusam. We will show their photos on TAKA soon.

That evening Swami Guhabhaktananda from Divine Life Society joined us for dinner. We are very grateful to swamiji for letting us use his premises during our visit to Batu Caves earlier in the morning. Thank you very much!

Dr. Arjunan Subramaniam hosted the group for dinner. Thank you for welcoming our group so warmly to Kuala Lumpur.

Tatiana Martushev from New York celebrated her birthday on this auspicious day. Happy Birthday!

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From Our Gurus' Teachings

"Temples with multiple deities can be confusing, especially for today's Hindu youth. For clarity, we need to bring forward a more precise understanding of the different Hindu denominations and how the different Gods are viewed from within each denomination. For spiritual advancement it is best to focus on one deity and get to the vibration that deity. When we hear teachings from various Hindus, it is important to understand and identify which denomination they are speaking from. This will avert confusion when that teaching gets contradicted in a different context where someone is talking about the same subject but from a different philosophical background."

Bodhinatha reviews the main characteristic of Saivite philosophy and practice with an indepth focus on the four stages of religions evolution, chariya, kriya, yoga and jnana. He highlights how this shows that Saiva Siddhanta is unique and quite from the modern practice of Hinduism as Vedanta